


Poison Sting

by Lady_Sci_Fi



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-06-21
Packaged: 2020-05-15 18:16:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19301170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Sci_Fi/pseuds/Lady_Sci_Fi
Summary: While looking for an alien creature with Captain Yates, Sergeant Benton gets attacked and injured.





	Poison Sting

 “Wait, I think I spotted it!” Mike said, pointing out the UNIT truck windshield into the forest off the road.

 Benton pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road and turned it off. They had been sent out to the countryside a few hours north of HQ to investigate reports of some sort of strange creature running amok. It apparently hadn’t done any harm or damage, but it had certainly scared the locals.

 Both men jumped out, guns in hand but not raised. “Hello?” Mike shouted out in the direction the blue-and-green furred human-sized creature had darted off to. They didn’t know if it was supposed to be sentient or not. For now, they would go with the assumption that it was.

 Mike nodded to Benton, and they both went into the forest proper. “We’re not here to hurt you,” Mike called out again.

 They both flinched and turned at the high-pitched hissing sound from somewhere nearby. “Can you understand us?” Benton tried. He stiffened at the rustle of the thick underbrush. Whatever it was had to be crawling around out of easy sight, and was more agile than any human.

 Both of them had the uneasy feeling of being hunted prey, and they lifted their weapons to a more defensive position. “Come out,” Mike invited. “We simply want to talk. If you crashed here, we might be able to help you get back home.”

 Suddenly, it rose and ran. Mike and Benton went after it, now becoming the hunters.

 The alien led them deeper into the forest, and they struggled to keep up with it. A couple minutes later, they stopped when they lost sight of it.

 “Think it’s gotten away, sir?” Benton asked through heavy breaths. His question was answered a second later by a loud high hiss. They both turned to see the alien simply standing there. It was shorter than them, and had a strange feline sort of face. Amongst the fur on the arms were longer and harder spines.

 “Hello,” Mike greeted, trying to sound friendly. “Quite a chase you led us on.”

 The alien tilted its head as its pupils narrowed.

 “Can you understand us?” Benton asked.

 The alien didn’t answer verbally, instead raising its arm. Something flashed past Mike, but he kept his eyes locked on the alien, who then lowered its arm and ran.

 Mike took two steps forward to give chase, but stopped at the low whimper from behind him. “Sergeant?” he inquired as he turned, then he froze at the sight.

 Three thick blue-green spines stuck out of Benton’s right shoulder and chest. Benton stared down at them, almost in confusion. Then he looked back up to Mike, pain evident on his face. Blood stained the fabric around the spines. The gun in his right hand dropped to the ground as he exhaled, the breath accompanied by a small cry.

 That snapped Mike from his shock and he rushed to him. Benton staggered backwards, but Mike caught him before he could completely trip over a tree root. He guided him back to a trunk, and Benton heavily slumped against it.

 “You should go after it,” Benton suggested through clenched teeth.

 Mike glanced around, saw no sign of the creature, and shook his head. “No use, it’s gone now.” He added quietly, “Besides, you’re more important right now.”

 Benton lifted his left hand up to pull out the spines, but Mike stopped him. “Don’t need to risk you bleeding out,” he explained.

 Benton nodded in acceptance, and clenched his right hand. Then he whimpered at a pain that began to course down that arm. He didn’t say anything, not wanting Mike to worry more over him.

 Mike bent down to grab Benton’s gun and place it in his belt. Then he put Benton’s left arm over his shoulders. “Come on.”

 The pain in Benton’s shoulder and arm became steadily worse as they made their way to the truck. He clenched his jaw shut as it began to spike and throb, but the low-pitched almost-cry was still audible.

 “Benton?”

 “It’s… it’s getting worse,” Benton admitted through a hard breath. He stumbled and nearly took them both down to the ground at another spike of agony. After five more steps, his eyelids fluttered, and his legs nearly gave out.

 Mike managed to catch them against a tree. “Come on, John, nearly there.”

 Benton responded with another cry of pain and sharp inhale. In the half-delirious haze, he weakly tried to push the other man away. “Poison…” he guessed.

 “What?” Mike said in surprise.

“My arm… spreading…”

 Mike readjusted Benton’s weight, and continued on. “Come on,” he encouraged. “We’ve got to get you to hospital.”

 By the time they reached the truck, Benton could barely hold up any of his own weight. “Mike…” he whimpered when the other man held him against the truck to open the passenger door. He feebly pawed around the spines to get them out, and yelped when he accidently pushed one a tiny bit further in.

 “Let’s get you in first, alright?” Mike said. It took a lot of maneuvering to do so, and when Benton was finally in the seat, he had his head tilted back and eyes clenched shut. Tears leaked from them.

 “Take them out?” Benton requested.

 Mike grimaced, and positioned one hand lower on Benton’s chest to steady himself. He couldn’t stop himself from planting a kiss on Benton’s sweat-dampened forehead. “Ready?” he asked, taking hold of one of the spines.

 Benton nodded shortly. “P-please.” He gripped Mike’s wrist on his chest tightly. The pain in his arm and right side of his chest was becoming unbearable now. He gritted his teeth in anticipation.

 Mike decided to do this quickly, and yanked the spine out. He did the other two immediately after, despite Benton’s long cry as the nearly two inches embedded in his flesh came out. Mike put the spines in his pocket, and took Benton’s beret from his head to press over the wounds. “Hold that there,” he instructed.

 Benton had enough presence of mind to let go of Mike’s wrist and hold the hat there. His hand slipped, but he forced himself to press more firmly, despite the pain.

 Mike didn’t think there was anything in the first aid kit that could really help, and decided to take Benton straight to the nearest hospital. He hoped he remembered the area well enough to find it without getting lost.

 Mike briefly caressed Benton’s cheek as encouragement before closing the passenger door and hurrying to the driver’s side to get in. “Tell me if it gets worse,” he said as he started the vehicle.

 Benton grunted and did his best to relax his body. He couldn’t start to panic. His mouth twitched upwards for a second at Mike’s gentle pat to his thigh and “I love you.”

 Mike couldn’t help looking over at Benton every time the other man whimpered in pain. He knew that he must be a lot of agony for him to verbalize it like this.

 Thankfully, Mike’s memory didn’t fail him, and he parked in the emergency area of the hospital. He jumped out.

 “Feels like… f-fire inside…” Benton whispered as his door opened.

 “You’re going to get help,” Mike assured, reaching in to help the man out. Benton nearly fell out. Mike again put his left arm over his shoulders, and used his other hand to hold the bloodied hat in place. “That’s it,” he encouraged as Benton managed to take steps with him.

 A couple minutes later, Mike could only watch as a doctor and nurses wheeled a writhing Benton away on a gurney. He had told them what he could about what had happened, and that Benton had been poisoned in the attack.

 Mike ran a hand over his mouth, and shuddered when he remembered the blood on his palm. Benton’s blood. He hurried to the restroom to wash his hands and face. He took several deep breaths in an attempt to convince himself it would all turn out fine. Benton was tough, whatever poison was in his system, and he would get through it.

 But right now, he had to call HQ and tell the Brigadier what had happened and where they were.  He found the phone, and sighed heavily as he dialed the number.

 “Brigadier,” Mike greeted.

 “Captain Yates?”

 “Yes, sir. We found the creature, around where we thought it would be. But it attacked us. I’m alright, but Benton is badly injured. We’re at Glory Hospital.”

 “Stay there,” Alistair instructed. “I’ll be there with the Doctor as soon as we can. Do you think I should send more men after the creature?”

 “That’s up to you, sir. It’s stayed around that area for this long, so I doubt it’ll move far. If you do, just caution them that it can move very fast and attack without warning.”

 “I’ll hold off on that until I speak with you in person. Keep an eye on Benton until then.”

 “Of course.” Mike hung up the phone after the Brigadier did. He ran a hand through his hair, and took in a deep breath. Then he found the tea and coffee station to make himself a strong cup of tea.

 A couple hours later, the doctor assigned to Benton found Mike and took him to the sergeant’s ward. “He’s in a lot of pain. Whatever the poison is, we haven’t identified it yet. So we’ve put him under to give him some respite. The damage done in the stab wounds should heal fully if we can figure out the poison in time, or if it eventually works it’s way through him on its own. We have no idea, either way, at the moment.” He pushed open the door to Benton’s room. “There’s nothing else we can do until we identify it.”

 “Thank you,” Mike responded. “Could you leave us alone for a while?”

 “Of course. Just let us know when he wakes up.” The doctor turned to leave.

 “Oh, and there’ll be some more army people coming soon. If you could tell the nurse on duty out there where we are?”

 The doctor nodded, and left, closing the door behind him.

 Mike pulled a chair beside the sleeping man’s form. He glanced over to check that the door had fully closed before taking Benton’s left hand between his. He leaned forward to kiss his cheek before settling back. Even now, with Benton asleep, the pain he was experiencing was obvious. His right hand was in a loose tense fist, his mouth pressed together, his body shifted every so often.

 “I’m here,” Mike soothed, gently running his fingers through Benton’s hair. “I’m here, love.”

 ********

 Mike didn’t have to wait too much longer for the door to open and he immediately dropped Benton’s hand before the Brigadier and the Doctor walked in.

 “How is he?” Alistair asked.

 “Stable,” Mike answered. As he gave his report, the Doctor read through Benton’s chart and looked him over.

 Mike carefully pulled the spines from his pocket. “It shot these from its arm at Benton. It has some sort of poison on or in them. They haven’t identified it, yet. Not that I’d expect them to.”

 The Doctor took one to study it closely. “Painful on its own, no doubt, especially with those tiny barbs,” he remarked. “With the poison, possibly a hunting tool or-“

 Alistair sighed. “Does the purpose of it matter?”

 The Doctor raised a brow, then admitted, “No, not particularly.”

 “Do you think you might be able to identify the poison?” Mike asked. “Or, any part of it that could help?”

 “With my equipment, I don’t see why I couldn’t and produce an antidote.”

 “What about with the hospital’s equipment?” Alistair inquired.

 “I’d have to see what they have. But if I could do it here, that would hasten things, which would be only beneficial to Benton.”

 “I’ll get you access to their equipment, then. Captain, you’ve faced this thing. Any suggestions?”

 “Protective gear, at the least. It might only be able to attack once for a time, since it ran off after shooting Benton.”

 “If that’s true, we’ll be able to overwhelm it,” Alistair responded.

 All three of them looked to the bed as the injured man let out a long groan and his eyes opened. Mike bit back the desire to rush over and hold his hand.

 Benton blinked heavily, and clenched his teeth. “D-Doc? Brig?”

 “Yes, it’s us,” the Doctor affirmed, taking Mike’s chair. “How are you feeling?”

 Benton blew out a hard breath. He swallowed before admitting, “Hurts, a lot. St-stabbed and poisoned me…”

 The Doctor nodded. “Don’t worry, we’ll sort you out in no time.”

 Benton nodded, but his right hand clenched tightly.

 “Where does it hurt the most?”

 “R-right arm and chest…”

 “That would make sense,” the Doctor commented. “Has it spread any further?”

 “A bit.”

 As the Doctor continued to question Benton, Alistair drew Mike aside. “I’d like to have you with me when we go after this thing. But someone should probably stay with him.”

 “Agreed, sir.”

 “I’m sure I could get one of their nurses to stay with him. If not, when the reinforcements arrive, which shouldn’t be long, I’ll assign one of them to.”

 Mike nodded, masking his disappointment that he wouldn’t be staying to look after Benton. Duty came first, and he would be more useful helping the Brigadier hunt down the alien.

 “But first, I need to get the Doctor access to the lab here. Stay with him until then.”

 Mike nodded again. The Doctor finished talking with Benton a moment later. The Timelord took the other two spines from Mike, and left with Alistair.

 “Captain?”

 Mike reclaimed his chair, and took Benton’s hand. “I hope you didn’t downplay anything?”

 “That would be… be very hard right now.”

 Mike grimaced, and reached over to lay his hand over Benton’s clenched one. “The Doctor’s looking into an antidote. Someone will stay with you.”

 Benton’s fingers loosened just enough to grip Mike’s.

 “I’ll be helping the Brig hunt down this thing.”

 “D-don’t let it… let it get you.” Benton’s eyes squeezed shut for several seconds. “Don’t want that.”

 “I won’t,” Mike assured. “I’m sorry it got you.” He cleared his throat. “But you’ll be alright.”

 Benton nodded and attempted to smile. He managed it when Mike kissed him softly on the lips.

 Then Mike let go of Benton’s hand and withdrew to a more respectable position.

 Alistair returned a little while later, with a nurse in tow. “Captain?” he prompted.

 “Yes, sir.” Mike rose from the chair. “I’ll see you soon, Sergeant.”

 “Rest up, Benton,” Alistair said.

 “Do my best, sir,” Benton replied. When they left, he relaxed back against the pillow as much as his pain-ravaged body would allow, which was very little. He wished Mike could stay, hold his hand, gently touch him to help him through the agony.

 “Mister- Sorry, Sergeant Benton?”

 Benton remembered the nurse who had come in.

 “Everything is being done that we can for you. I can’t give you anything more to ease the pain. We’ve already given you as much as we dare.”

 Benton couldn’t do any more than nod his acknowledgment. The agony had spread down and across his torso. Burning and stabbing agony… “M-Mike…” he whispered. He wished his partner could stay, but he knew he would be more useful on the field than tending to him.

 His body convulsed at another wave of pain. “Doc… please, hurts so much…”

 Benton lost track of time, lost in the haze of agony. He couldn’t relax, couldn’t sleep through any of it. He tried to think of anything else to keep his mind off it- mostly memories of Mike- but it never worked for more than a few seconds, and he ended up fully giving into the inescapable sensation.

 ********

 “Sergeant?”

 Benton’s eyes fluttered open, and he fought to focus on the familiar face leaning over him. “Doc…?” How long had it been since Mike had left?

 “That’s right, Benton. I’ve got something that might help.”

 Benton could only manage a whimper in answer. He couldn’t keep focus, and returned to drifting in and out of external awareness.

 The next thing that made him try to focus again was Mike’s voice.

 “How is he?” Mike asked.

 “His body would’ve eventually broken down the poison on its own. I’ve given him something that should help to speed up the process,” the Doctor explained. “Anyone else need it?”

 “No,” Alistair answered. “We managed to catch it without anyone getting hurt by it. Thank heavens.”

 “Good, sir,” Benton forced out. “How long… until I’m better?”

 “I don’t know, Sergeant. It wasn’t a poison I am personally familiar with,” the Doctor answered. “Just keep trying to relax.”

 “Can we move him to the infirmary at HQ?” Alistair asked.

 “I wouldn’t want to move him right now,” the Doctor answered.

 Benton drifted out again, until a hand came down on his slightly-looser fisted hand.

 “I’ve been assigned to continue looking after you,” Mike explained with a small smile. “The Brig’s heading back to HQ, and the Doctor is doing something in the lab here.”

 Benton spotted the streaks of dirt on the other man’s face. “Another… chase?”

 “A longer one,” Mike answered. “Quite a hard thing to catch, whatever it is.” He stroked Benton’s cheek. “But not something you have to worry about. Feeling any better?”

 Benton took a moment to take stock of the pain in his body. It had lessened noticeably, although it still hurt very badly. “Yeah.”

 “Good. The Doctor hopes we can take you back to HQ tomorrow afternoon.”

 “As long as you’re here?” Benton asked hopefully.

 Mike smiled warmly. “I think I can manage that.” He bent over to press his forehead to Benton’s. Benton tilted his head up for a short, but loving, kiss.

 No matter how long it took Benton to recover from this, everything would be alright.


End file.
